A Hatred Most Pure novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Ansel's POV

Ansel's POV

Bram stitched my shoulder at the kitchen table while Cora sat across from me.

The hold's healer had already stitched the same wound on her.

The cook came in once and looked at the two of us.

She put a bottle of plum brandy between us without a word.

Neither of us touched it.

"Hold still," Bram said, to both of us.

Cora held still.

Her eyes were on me the whole time, steady and tired, and I could not read them.

When the last stitch was tied Bram gathered his needles and went to the door.

"I'll be in the hall," he said. "If either of you needs a witness."

He shut the door behind him.

The kitchen was warm and smelled of bread.

I did not know where to put my hands.

"You said to ask," Cora said.

"I did."

"I've been thinking all afternoon about what I'd say."

She laid something on the table between the brandy and the bandages.

It was the iron key.

"Your four terms," she said. "The bed, the gate, a wrong every night, and your mouth.

"I'd like them all gone."

"They're gone."

"I thought you'd argue."

"I read them aloud in front of the whole hold," I said. "I can take them back the same way."

She nodded.

"That's one," she said. "The next is the hard one."

I waited.

"I want to go."

The words went in clean and deep.

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